I hope you'll indulge me with this. Shadow the Wondermutt (my avatar), who died one year ago, was quite the gourmet dog. There was hardly any people food he didn't like (with the exception of lemons, and he wasn't crazy about eggs). He ate green chile stew, no matter how hot, sauerkraut, pizza, etc., and licked things so clean I almost didn't need a dishwasher.

I was at the NM State Fair today and brought back some leftover corndogs for the neighbor's dog. Corndogs were one of Shadow's favorite foods in the whole world. My uncle who owned the stand (and who coincidentally died on the same date as Shadow) used to say that Shadow was going to get pimples on his nose from eating so many corndogs.

So what kind of people food does your dog or cat like?

An amusing story we like to relate about Shadow is one day there was a sudden noise in our kitchen. My wife, Edie, said Shadow came upstairs to the room she was in and "notified" her of the noise. Edie headed downstairs to discover the cause of the noise. Courageous Shadow backed up Edie by staying on the top stair. No way was he coming down. Edie soon located the source of the noise--a cereal box that had fallen off the refrigerator. She finally showed Shadow the box and then everything was okay once again. And to think, the postman was scared to death of him.

The dog we have now is a six year old miniature poodle. Dillan is a Certified Pet Therapy Animal. We visit patients in our local hospitals and other care facilities. Dillan eats raw food because of a skin problem he was developing as a puppy caused by the curious ingredients they put in commercial dog foods, such as wheat, rice, and other grains, which is the cause of most allergies.

He eats raw ground meats. (I warm it a little) plus all sorts of organic raw veggies I put into the food processor and then into a sterilized Mason jar for the week. He loves my cookies, ice cream, and licking the cream off of my husband’s latte. Yes, my husband allows it!
He is a doll, so funny and too intelligent for a dog. He makes us laugh every morning with his antics, and demands a two mile, brisk walk every morning........which gets us up and moving too!
Oh, he also likes peanuts, and some little hard thing that falls out of our oak trees this time of year. No bigger than a speck of rice, but he eats them off the driveway as we leave for our walks.
The diet he is on is called B.A.R.F. if your are interested in looking it up.

So far after two years of observing him we haven't found a single thing he won't eat -- he'll spend an hour getting every last bit of flavor off a yogurt container. And, he eats non-stop if he can. Amazing garbage can.

Seems to be a breed characteristic -- he's on a perpetual diet and still about a pound over weight.

Gosh, I don't know, Kirk. We bought Clive as a "baby" for a large German Shepard who was spayed and demonstrated strong maternal instincts. His coloring was very similar to hers, and they made a very close knit and beautiful pair while she remained alive.

The Cavaliers are certainly happy little dogs -- 20 pounds or so -- with some cat like characteristics.

I've read that popularity of dog breeds is very trendy, and based on advertising or movie exposures -- like the Dalmation craze arising from the Disney movie.

Larry Greenly wrote:So what kind of people food does your dog or cat like?

My second ex-wife brought an ageing bichon frisé into our marriage which I referred to as a bitchin' frizzy ... the dog, not my ex. Poor dog had a hip displacement, hardly any teeth, and breath which would kill a moose. Still in all, we got along quite well ... again, me and the dog.

This dog loved green beans. But she would also eat anything that was within muzzle-range. In fact, she'd jump up on the dinner table when my back was turned and start chowing down on my dinner. (No, my reaction did not cause the hip displacement.) She was such a glutton that she learned to overcome the kid safety locks on the doors under the sink.

Once upon a day, my ex dumped two pounds of failed double chocolate brownie mix into the garbage under the sink and left the house. This was too great a temptation. The dog busted into the garbage through the safety locks and ate all two pounds of the mix. Of course, this was quite toxic and my ex found her, Lucy which was the dog's name, in a near-death coma with her kidneys about to fail. She saved her to pig out another day.

I don't even want to start to comment on my daughter's two cats, although I have developed a relationship with one such that she comes when called and heels like a dog when we go for walks. Now, that's pretty cool.

Gary, I had a big Maine Coon named Fudge who after being castrated had only two ideas in life -- eating and sleeping. He did anything for food -- I taught him to sit up on two legs with his front legs about 18 inches off the ground.

I would throw treats to him from ten to twelve feet away. If the treat was within a foot or so of his head, he would catch it, sometimes batting it into range of his mouth. But he never ever got off his butt -- just waited for the next bit.

Larry Greenly wrote:So what kind of people food does your dog or cat like?

Elvis, our 120# black lab isn't really too particular, right down to the cat's litter box unfortunately (although that definitely doesn't count as people food). He'll eat any people food except cooked mushrooms. His "treat" when we leave is simply an ice cube. Lately he's been on a carrot kick. He's eaten 2 entire loaves of fresh baked sourdough left to cool a bit close to the edge of the counter (which in his case is anywhere on the counter).

One of his selling points when we first got him at age 3 (free to a good home, which is definitely a misnomer) was that at 6 mos of age he went to the neighbors garage and dragged home a 50# bag of dog food, which I just took as him being self-sufficient.

Then there's his penchant for people food based on potential. On one of his late night forays he dragged home the better part of a deer carcass which my wife was dee-lighted to find on the front porch. On another, when I found him, he jumped into the backseat and promptly spit out the remains of an entire chicken that he'd hidden deep in the recesses of his jowls. And on yet another, one of our friends found him wondering and put him in the back of their minivan. The next day they gagged on whatever remains he'd left for them between the seat and the door.

Please don't think we're bad parents leaving our pet to wonder the ends of the earth,,, recall the earlier mention of self-sufficiency-he used to be a regular Houdini.

Helmut (our German shepherd mix, whose name is a pun, as in Hell, mutt, what have you got into now), adores milk, cheese, yogurt, pasta, tomato sauce, all types of meat, fish, and anything sweet. He likes bread, too. When we first got him from the pound, we didn't need to sweep the kitchen floor, as he'd scarf anything that fell. Now, after 5 years of easy living, he's a bit more particular.

He's a very good boy, though, and wouldn't dream of getting into the trash can, or snitching food from our plates. In fact, we can put snacks on the coffee table in the living room (easily within his range) and leave the room, and he won't touch them. He knows not to beg from the table, but when I'm snacking on something in the living room, he'll lay his head on my knee and look up at me with his big, brown eyes....works every time!

Larry, my Max loved a good meatloaf (who doesn't) and when he got to where he couldn't eat meatloaf, We knew it was time to let him go. I cried for a week, and my wife would tear up suddenly for more than a year. We humans do love our dogs don't we.

Well, our three cats have very divergent tastes. Hannibal prefers dry cat food. He will eat some canned cat food, but there is no human food that he shows any distinct appetite for. Dominic, on the other hand, will make a pest of himself in the dining room whenever we have chicken or turkey. He's been known to pull the bones out of the garbage if we don't get it outside before we go to bed. Licorice seems pretty unconcerned with eating in general. He eats dry and canned cat food, but he seems to only do it to fuel up. He'd rather be romping around the back yard. (He did eat a whole sparrow he caught recently, though.)

Years ago, I had a cat named Boris. One night, we came home with a big double-garlic-double-cheese pizza, with whole cloves of garlic baked on top of the pie. Boris got all excited and we finally realized he wanted the garlic. He ate four or five cloves that evening. Emptying the catbox the next day was quite the unique experience.

Mike Filigenzi (Sacto) wrote:...Dominic, on the other hand, will make a pest of himself in the dining room whenever we have chicken or turkey. He's been known to pull the bones out of the garbage if we don't get it outside before we go to bed.

A few years ago, I smoked some turkey breast, sliced it all up thin, wrapped it up and put it in the fridge for my wife to take to a Christmas party the next day where she worked. At the time we 5 cats and a small dog. During the night, the youngest cat, Tyler, figured out that if he laid on his back with his head against the bottom of the fridge (for leverage) he could pry the door of the fridge open using his front paws. When I got up the next morning, the fridge was wide open, all 5 cats and the dog were sleeping contentedly and bits of smoked turkey were scattered across the kitchen floor. My wife ended up buying smoked turkey at the deli and I rigged up a bunjee cord to the handle of the fridge door to keep things safe.

Only dog related story was at a wine tasting. Squiffy (the dogs name) waited until it's owners were out of the room, then sidled over to a very large block of cheddar and made a grab for it & made a bid for freedom down the stairs.

Of our own pets, the rabbit we had (mostly house-trained) turned up at the door from the garden with what could only be called an "innocent" expression only managed by the utterly guilty. We didn't need to guess what had happened to the chives once we caught a whiff of her breath.

Mike Filigenzi (Sacto) wrote:...Dominic, on the other hand, will make a pest of himself in the dining room whenever we have chicken or turkey. He's been known to pull the bones out of the garbage if we don't get it outside before we go to bed.

A few years ago, I smoked some turkey breast, sliced it all up thin, wrapped it up and put it in the fridge for my wife to take to a Christmas party the next day where she worked. At the time we 5 cats and a small dog. During the night, the youngest cat, Tyler, figured out that if he laid on his back with his head against the bottom of the fridge (for leverage) he could pry the door of the fridge open using his front paws. When I got up the next morning, the fridge was wide open, all 5 cats and the dog were sleeping contentedly and bits of smoked turkey were scattered across the kitchen floor. My wife ended up buying smoked turkey at the deli and I rigged up a bunjee cord to the handle of the fridge door to keep things safe.

Wow - that's a smart cat! Thank goodness our Dominic has the brain of a walnut. Otherwise, I'm sure we'd have had a similar problem.

Bob Ross wrote: I had a big Maine Coon named Fudge who after being castrated had only two ideas in life -- eating and sleeping.

Lucky he didn't add 'Revenge' to that duo....

I had to dog-sit my aunt's chi-hua-hua once when she went on holiday. Aunt was a doggie nutcase and insisted the wee doggie would refuse to eat anything but well done filet mignon.

Dog lasted two days in my care without eating a thing, because I immediately put it on a no filet diet. By the time Auntie returned it was chowing down on canned dogfood and kibble beside out Labrador with evident gusto.

Don't think the aunt ever forgave me - not for starving her dog, but probably for proving her wrong. Must say I did enjoy eating filet all that week.......

Where I work, we do testing on to identify dogs who've gotten hold of someone's (never the owner's, of course) cannabis. Apparently, the stuff is not particularly toxic to them. They tend to pass out, sometimes for quite a long time, and then wake up no worse for wear. There's a story about a toxicologist from another facility who was working at a poison control center when he received a panicked call from someone who wouldn't state their name. Their dog had eaten a fair amount of high-grade marijuana and was now unconscious. The toxicologist replied that they should treat the dog with several hours of vintage Pink Floyd....

My dog's absolute favorite food is the membranes from between the sections of grapefruit. We eat grapefruit like oranges, peeling off the bitter membrane and he loves them.

I used to have a dog who ate my currant tomatoes off the vine, tangerines off of the trees, and picked and ate my sole heirloom watermelon an hour before I was going to pick it lol. At that same time, I had a cat who ran away from living in the house, to live in my avocado orchard and live on fallen fuertes. She gained a lot of weight but her coat was amazingly shiny and thick.

Karen, my dog eats BARF as well, but much differently. I give him whole pieces of raw chicken (he's 80 lbs and quite lean and muscular so he gets whole halves of chickens), along with a pureed mush of various vegetables and whole raw eggs with the shells on. His health is amazing. Back when I was feeding him super high premium commercial dog food he had the notorious boxer dental issues. Within a couple of months on raw, his teeth were like those of a puppy, and still are at age 8. (He's boxer/golden retriever) The cats eat raw chicken wings and necks.

For the scientist, as for the poet, there are as many levels of wonder in the silent beat of a butterfly wing as in the howl of a wolf.
-Douglas H. Chadwick.

My girlfriend's Fredricka, all 4 lbs of her, is a 2 year old poodle who I dog sit for, and get to spoil most rottenly, whilst in my care, for a week or so at a time.

Since her mom is a a proper Brit, the dog endured eating the same wet dogfood mixed with Kibble for months, until I tasted a bit of her gritty bland dogfood (strictly for scientific reasons, uh, sure!) and tried her on a mix of varied dogfoods mixed with a bit of whatever I was eating, then occasionally going over the edge, and sauteing or nuking the concoction for good measure, before serving her. Funny, she would scarf down the gritty nasty dogfood only if it was pan seared, and served warm...

I discovered she is wild about , and does a fevered dance in anticipation of eating meat from ribs with a Memphis style rub, pork pate, and creme brulee.

She must taste a few drops of whatever I'm drinking, and seem to like Chards, and isn't crazy for German whites, or for Guiness, Nukie Brown and other Irish/British delights. In return, she hides her bones in my shoe, and "mouths", runs off, then deposits half eaten samosas under towels to, uh, ripen for me to find. I guess I'm just lucky to have such treasures to hunt for... The supreme compliment on human cuisine is when she dines, then stretches out on her back,and licks her chops!

She runs , not walks from proferred Trinidadian curried chicken or curried goat, has never tasted it, she just can't stand the very scent of the strong spices. (She does appreciate the Red Stripe beer),....I can't yet figure what wine to pair with nuclear grade Scotch Bonnet peppers in the rich curries, and clearly she's letting me be on my own for this search...